Friday, April 02, 2010

I have been off-line for several days out of townand unable to alert people about this. Make nomistake, this was an ambush and attemptedpolitical assassination against a committedanti-racist skinhead. Rose City Anti-Fa (akaPortland ARA) are raising funds and other formsof support. We will be raising funds at ateach-in to build for April 17 at the YJC/Chuco'sJustice Center, Friday night April 2, 7 PM, 1137E Redondo Blvd. in Inglewood, 3 blocks west ofCrenshaw, 1 block north of Florence.

Here's the story in some detail from the RoseCity Anti-fa website (they are the ARA affiliate in Portland)

Local Anti-Racist Shot in Downtown Portland04/01/2010Shortly after midnight on Saturday, March 27, aman was brutally attacked in the heart ofdowntown Portland. His attacker shot him and lefthim lying in the street. He is currently fightingto overcome extensive injuries. It is no secretthat this man, Luke Querner, is a long-timeanti-fascist activist. He has devoted over adecade of his life to opposing the most viciouselements of our city’s white supremacistmovement. Rose City Antifascists, the Portlandchapter of the Anti-Racist Action Network,believe that the local neo-Nazis whom Luke hasopposed for years attempted to murder him onSaturday morning. Luke is proud to be ananti-racist skinhead. The true skinhead movementhas always been anti-racist, tracing its originsto the cultural intersection of Jamaicanimmigrants and working class whites in Englandduring the 1960s. After racists and the far-Rightattempted to hijack the skinhead movement in thelate 1970s and ‘80s, a movement known asSkinHeads Against Racial Prejudice (SHARP)emerged in 1987 to reaffirm the anti-racist rootsof the subculture. As with many other anti-racistskins, Luke is deeply committed to racialequality and social justice. This commitment hascaused Luke to be targeted in the past. Rose CityAntifa believes that the most recent attack wasplanned and committed by an element withinPortland’s neo-Nazi underground. This is the mostlogical explanation for such a vicious act, forseveral reasons: 1. Local neo-Nazi organizationsand cliques have the capability to carry out suchan act. Several organizations, including thePortland-centered Volksfront International, aretightly-organized, disciplined, and commandsignificant loyalty from adherents andsympathizers. Their members have experiencecommitting violent acts, including murder. 2.Luke was a prime enemy of organized racists. Lukeand his community have been violently targeted byVolksfront in the past. The recent shootingechoes the sentiments expressed in the song“SHARP Shooter” by the old Volksfront-affiliatedrock band, Jew Slaughter. 3. Local fascist groupshave spent recent months uniting despiteorganizational differences. Volksfront as well asNational Socialist Movement affiliates hosted aseries of social events that have likelyemboldened individual fascists. One recent pointof unity between local neo-Nazi cliques andgroups­whether they be Volksfront, the NorthwestFront, the National Socialist Movement orHammerskins­has been common targeting ofanti-racists and the Left. 4. Given the overallresurgence of the radical Right in recent years(see Southern Poverty Law Center report),neo-Nazis have expressed more urgency in theirpropaganda, expecting a race war in the nearfuture. Luke is an entrenched and beloved figurein the anti-racist community and well known bylocal fascists. Saturday’s shooting was anintentional message that those standing up forequality are in mortal danger. Portland has along, violent history of racist organizing thatcontinues to this day. In the late 1980s,Portland became notorious as a hotbed of whitesupremacist activity. Many organizations, such asthe Aryan Nations, declared the Pacific Northwestto be a future white homeland. The groups thatwould go on to comprise Volksfront and otherformations, swelled in numbers. The 1988 murderof Ethiopian student Mulugeta Seraw and trial ofthe three neo-Nazi culprits represented the highwater mark of Nazi terror at that point.Concerted community efforts, as well as ahigh-profile civil suit, drove many localneo-Nazis underground. Unfortunately some ofthese white supremacists are still here, alwaysstruggling to re-emerge. The attempted killingalso reminds us of the 1998 executions of Lin"Spit" Newborn and Dan Shersty--who were alsoanti-racist skinheads--by neo-Nazis in the desertoutside of Las Vegas, Nevada. Rose City Antifabelieves that this shooting is of particularsignificance, representing a neo-Nazi attempt toreclaim the streets and apply their whitesupremacist agenda through force and terror. Thisseems to be tied to the larger context of anationwide mobilization of the radical Right. Wecriticize the Portland Police response to thistragic attack, which appears to be furthervictimizing the survivor and his community. Thispolice approach reflects the Department’sinstitutional biases regarding race and racialhate, apparent in the recent police bean-bagshotgun assault on a 12-year-old African Americangirl, and their killing of an unarmed AfricanAmerican man two months ago. Despite the factthat Luke’s shooting was an unprovoked attackwith a fairly obvious motive, the police appearto be treating the victim as the problem. Thepolice released Luke’s name to the media on theSunday after the shooting, in total disregard forhis safety and security. We feel it is extremelyimportant to clarify the nature of thissituation, given that the information released sofar has generally situated this event in the samecategory as an unrelated shooting about 50minutes earlier in Portland, reportedly relatedto violence between rival gangs. Treating Luke’sshooting as a gang related event obscures thepolitical implications of the attack, and utterlymisses the point. The racist overtones of much ofthe online commentary on the coverage isparticularly appalling given that Luke wassomeone that spent his entire adult life fightingwhite supremacy. Portland Anti-Racist Actionvigorously challenges any assumptions that theambush was performed by people of color, whichmay have been suggested by prior media coverage.This was not a fight that got out of hand. Therewas no fight. It was an assassination attempt.Luke is currently looking at a mountain ofmedical bills. The Anti-Racist Action Network iscurrently hosting benefits from coast to coast toraise funds. In addition, the ARA Network has setup a PayPal account to send Luke donations. Asalways, Rose City Antifa is looking for any andall information related to fascist organizing inour town. Contact us atfight_them_back@riseup.net or leave a voice mailmessage at 971.533.7832. We will not rest untilwe see some measure of justice for Luke.

Portland Anti-Racists: Downtown Shooting wasLikely a Neo-Nazi Ambush Anti-Racist Targeted inSaturday Morning Attempted Murder Portland,Oregon – In a city that still remembers the 1988beating death of Mulugeta Seraw by three racists,a recent downtown shooting may thrust the issueof white supremacist violence into the forefrontof public consciousness once again.A localanti-racist organization claims that the earlymorning shooting in downtown Portland on March27, whose survivor remains in Intensive Care, wasmost likely an attempted murder by one or moreneo-Nazis. The victim of the shooting, LukeQuerner, is an entrenched and beloved figure inthe anti-racist community. He has devoted over adecade of his life to opposing Portland’s whitepower movement. Luke Querner was shot atapproximately 12:20AM on Saturday morning, in anunprovoked attack on SW 5th Avenue, between Starkand Washington Street. The shooting appears tohave been well-orchestrated; the assailantconcealed his identity, fleeing at leastinitially by foot in a closely-surveilled area.The attempted murder of Querner occurs in thecontext of escalating activity from a racistunderground that believes it can operate withimpunity. The past half year has been one ofincreasing audacity from local whitesupremacists, with organizations such asVolksfront, the Northwest Front and the NationalSocialist Movement drawing closer together.Members of these and similar organizations--aswell as cliques on their periphery--shareinformation about anti-racists and the Left, andhave been increasing their actions against suchtargets. Portland Anti-Racist Action believesthat the attempted murder of Querner was apolitical act, most likely by neo-Nazis. To treatthis violence as "gang-related" obscures itspolitical context and almost certainly misses itspoint. The shooting seems designed to send amessage and to intimidate anti-racists. PortlandARA criticizes the police’s choice to releaseQuerner’s name on Sunday, placing him at furtherrisk. The organization also questions the policeportrayal of the shooting, which frames theincident as near-random, rather than as an act ofpolitical terror and attempted assassination.Querner was shot because of his convictions, thegroup believes.“The Portland Police aren’ttelling the whole story” states Alicia ofPortland ARA, “They have not mentioned the mostobvious motive for the shooting. We fear thatthey are more interested in smearing the victimthan in uncovering the truth. Our thoughts go outto Luke right now.” An expanded statement withfurther details surrounding the shooting isavailable on the website: rosecityantifa.org.Information on how to contribute to Querner’smedical bills and related expenses may also befound on this site. Portland Anti-Racist Actioncontinues to be interested in any and allinformation related to white supremacistorganizing in Portland and its vicinity. For moreinformation, please contact Portland Anti-RacistAction at fight_them_back@riseup.net or 971.533.7832 (voicemail.) ###

Mainstream report:Anti-racist group argues shooting of Portland man was a neo-Nazi attackBy Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian April 01, 2010, 5:57PM

Police investigating Saturday's shooting of LukeV. Querner in downtown Portland will reviewreports from a group called Portland Anti-RacistAction, which argues that Querner, aself-described anti-racist skinhead, was thevictim of an orchestrated attack by neo-Nazis.Querner suffered a single gunshot wound as he wasleaving Kelly's Olympian in the 400 block ofSouthwest Washington Street, about 12:20 a.m. themorning of his 30th birthday. Querner was listedin critical condition a day later. He remainshospitalized and is expected to survive. Noarrests have been made. "Those things may betrue. At this point in our investigation, wehaven't been able to sort through all that," saidDetective Kevin Warren, an assault investigatorwho also specializes in bias crimes. "There'sstill a lot of people we need to talk to." Aspolice work to track down witnesses, news of thebrazen shooting quickly spread across the countryto other anti-racist and civil rights groups.Eric Ward, national field director for theChicago-based group Center for New Community,which monitors social movements that promotebigotry, said he was familiar with Querner'sgrass-roots activism, anti-racist andanti-fascist politics in Oregon. Ward, whopreviously lived in Eugene and Seattle, saidthere's been a decades-long struggle betweenNeo-Nazi skinheads and what are calledanti-racist skinheads, who trace their origin toBritain in the late 60s and emulated the cultureof early Jamaican immigrants with heavyinfluences from Jamaican ska, rock and reggaeartists. They're also known as Skinheads AgainstRacial Prejudice, or SHARPs. "I do remember Lukewhen he was very young. He was very active, andvery outspoken, often in the audience whenanti-racist speakers came to town," Ward said."Luke was also very much involved in the music,punk scene in Portland." Portland StateUniversity Professor Randy Blazak, an associateprofessor of sociology, said the SHARPS are veryaggressive in their efforts to drive out neo-Naziskinheads, by making and distributing fliers thatsay where neo-Nazi skinheads work or go toschool. "They are much more aggressive, and areinvolved in a full court press to push the racistskinheads out of town," Blazak said. They feelthey've been co-opted by the white powerskinheads, Blazak said. Querner was at Kelly'sOlympian to watch the bands The Madison Concreteand Les Etrangers. According to some witnessaccounts, the music had just finished playing andpeople were exiting the bar when shots rang out.Some people hit the ground; others ran out. Asuspect with a black hood and black bandanamasking his face was seen firing shots andrunning from the scene, Blazak said. Querner wasshot once in the torso, Warren said. "Because ofthe history of Portland, it has a lot of us veryconcerned," Ward said, noting the 1988 fatalbaseball-bat beating of Ethiopian studentMulugeta Seraw by a trio of skinheads inSoutheast Portland. "I really hope that lawenforcement seriously pursues this case, anddoesn't try to whittle this down to some incidentof gang violence. I hope they either prove ordisprove what we think was a calculated attack. Ithink the implications are very scary if someoneout there who may have been affiliated with aneo-Nazi group felt they had the political spaceto shoot someone because of their politicalbeliefs." Warren said there was a case reportedlast year involving a fight between a neo-Naziskinhead and anti-racist skinheads at a bar onPortland's eastside. Often, the skirmishes aren'treported. Warren added that he has seen the newsreleases widely distributed by the PortlandAnti-Racist Action group regarding Querner'sshooting, but hasn't had any direct contact yetwith its members. Continue article athttp://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/04/anti-racist_group_argues_shoot.html

Further note from MN: The killings of Lin 'Spit'Newborn and Dan Shersty, two anti-racist skins inLas Vegas who were part of ARA in a premeditatedambush, was also dismissed at the time by policeand mainstream civil rights organizations as"gang violence" and "internecine conflicts amongskinheads." Nothing could be farther from thetruth. It is vital that anti-fascists of allpolitical persuasions step up to defend andsupport those under attacks, and also understandhow serious this struggle is and act accordingly.--MN

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